Tinnitus-Free at Last

I am a 58 year old female and the tinnitus came on out of the blue while relaxing in my garden. I feel generally very happy, healthy and live a stress-free and fulfilled life.

After 6.5 months of terrible suffering I have found two things that have helped me:

- twice a day for 20 minutes a contrast foot bath where you immerse your feet first into very hot water and then in cold and back and forth again. I discovered this a month ago and it brought my tinnitus down by roughly 50%.
- believe or not: chewing gum. As long as I chew I am free of tinnitus. I never had tinnitus while eating and at some point I thought, maybe it is the chewing and bingo - that is exactly what it is. The chewing sound does not mask my tinnitus. If I had it I would easily hear over and above the chewing. When I stop chewing the tin often comes back quickly but overall with less and less intensity.(but I do not let that happen - I just keep gently chewing and then I am fine.)

Two things that reliably brought on the most awful spikes are:
- physical over-exertion (anything longer that 2-3 hours of hard physical work) brought on two days of 4 fold increased tinnitus
- strangely: drinking lots of water (3 litres a day) also brought on tinntius that is at least 4 times as horrible as usual.

Since I stopped drinking too my water, working so hard and reduced the length of my frequent long walks I do not get spikes any more - thank goodness.

So, I think that this counts as a success story even though I do not not understand what my underlying condition is that I have these strange patterns. If anybody can point me to an idea what might be wrong with me I would be grateful.

Other than that I hope that some of you can benefit from my experiences. Good luck to all of you.

 

Thanks for the info. Maybe the chewing gum helps ETD, kind of like swallowing helps to equalize the pressure on the airplane.

 

I fail to see how ETD could cause tinnitus. The only thing that ETD could do would be to not let fluids drain from the middle ear and give you glue ear, which is like earwax build up causing tinnitus, but on the other side of the eardrum.
Other than that, how could ETD be the cause of tinnitus?

 

I read ETD affects hearing, and at times, causes the person to have muffled hearing and 10 dB losses. So, there's also that.

EDIT: If chewing gum helps, maybe look into the Eustachian Tube Exerciser on Amazon? I heard that greatly helps with ETD, along with steaming.

 

Right, and I think that muffle is from a build up of fluid in the middle ear or I guess a pressure difference.

 

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/858777-clinical

Not my opinion, but ETD does produce the symptom of tinnitus. See the link above.

 

Hi guys, thanks very much for the useful replies.
ETD (eustachian tube dysfunction" has occurred to me, too.

Erik, I think you are right. My tinnitus is very different to the one of my husband who has very mild hearing loss. He is missing a few frequencies in the upper register. I can hear a lot of things that he cannot hear and when I had a hearing test 2 years ago the audiologist was very impressed that I had near 100% hearing which he said was amazing at my age. So, I did not bother going again because my hearing is still extremely acute (I sometimes wish it wasn't because I am also easily annoyed by environmental noises).

Anyway, my husband's tinnitus is very steady and not influenced by anything. My own tinnitus is influenced and improved by many things: any form of movement and being on my feet usually gets almost completely rid of it (if I do not have a spike day), massage and acupressure in and around the ears gets rid of it (usually no longer than 20 seconds) and as I have already told - chewing.

My husband is completely habituated to his tinnitus and does not suffer at all but I suffered very badly before I found the chewing. My tinnitus was never the same - it has many different sounds, it comes and goes in waves like a siren and it was often accompanied by pressure on the ears from inside. It would be impossible to habituate to that (in my opinion).

Other ideas what may be causing my tin is TMJ, something wrong in my neck or low blood pressure (this morning I was 93 over 58 - very low). The fact that the foot baths helps so well does point to a circulation problem.

Even though I have managed now to get rid of the tin in itself I am obviously very keen to find and remove the underlying cause of this all. So, any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

All of this is really interesting to read, as I experience a lot of the same symptoms! My tinnitus is also constantly changing, and can be manipulated simply by drinking lots of water, or chewing! Also, this morning I woke up with intrusive tinnitus, then went running, and came back with mild tinnitus (which returned to intrusive, unfortunately). Simply swallowing, on the other hand, can either introduce a new tone or get rid of it.

For me, this also has to do with hyperacusis, as my ears start to crackle and respond to sound. So there are probably nerves that contract, and interact with middle ear fluids in there.

Since you said chewing gets rid of it, this almost certainly points towards ETD. I’ve read that tinnitus that results from ETD often stops while talking, to return right after. This is one way to check if the tinnitus originates here. I’d think chewing and talking both involve the jaw, and interactions in that area.

Do you also experience a (constantly changing) crackle sound and feeling when swallowing? And can this change the tinnitus? For myself, I notice for instance that if the tinnitus is louder in my left ear, my left also crackles the most. If the sound is a high pitched one, it crackles differently than when it’s a hiss. And when I woke up one morning without tinnitus, that crackling was gone (both returned unfortunately, but still). So there’s definitely a connection.

 

Yes, the tinnitus definitely goes away when talking! I had not seen that connection either. I was so thoroughly confused about all the info about the tin and now it dawns on me that it must largely be geared at people with hearing loss and my tinnitus is very different and needs a completely different approach.

I had a multitude of sounds and sensations and at some point a lot of crackling and ear drum movement. But nothing with swallowing.

So the ETD hypothesis is hardening I am happy that I finally get more of an understanding.

There is a person called Dr Mandell on YouTube who gives a lot of advice about tinnitus caused by ETD - try to check him out, Bob.

 

I associate improvement by chewing more with temporomandibular joint dysfunction than with ETD.

 

Chewing gum is activating TMJ muscles pretty seriously.

Sleeping with a TMJ guard reduces my beep.

 

I also suspect that drinking too much water increases tinnitus.

 

I have developed Eustachian tube dysfunction from catching colds and I believe it's caused my tinnitus because I first noticed the ringing after catching two colds within a month and I also get very bad ear pain and blockage when the airplane is landing ... have been on 11 flights this year and I think it's played a part in this T